Two Maine news anchors quit on the air

Citing a longstanding battle with upper management over journalistic practices at their Bangor TV stations, news co-anchors Cindy Michaels and Tony Consiglio announced their resignations at the end of Tuesday's 6 p.m. newscast.

Michaels and Consiglio, who have a combined 12½ years' service at WVII (Channel 7) and sister station WFVX (Channel 22), shocked staff members and viewers with their joint resignations Tuesday evening.

"I just wanted to know that I was doing the best job I could and was being honest and ethical as a journalist, and I thought there were times when I wasn't able to do that," said Consiglio, a northeastern Connecticut native who broke in with WVII as a sports reporter in April 2006.

[...]

"It's a culmination of ongoing occurrences that took place the last several years and basically involved upper management practices that we both strongly disagreed with," she explained. "It's a little complicated, but we were expected to do somewhat unbalanced news, politically, in general."

Neither Michaels nor Consiglio would say what specific political leaning they were expected to adopt.

Consiglio, who also was executive producer, said the balanced journalistic approach they use for all their stories was sometimes frowned upon.

Both reporters said they do not have anything lined up in terms of jobs in the media.

"This is one of the toughest decisions I've ever made. This is my career and I love doing it," Consiglio said. "I'm looking at some options, but whether they're in this industry or not is something I'll find out."

It doesn't matter whether they were being forced to skew the news to the right or left, taking a stand for fairness and putting your job where you mouth is takes some courage.

Citing a longstanding battle with upper management over journalistic practices at their Bangor TV stations, news co-anchors Cindy Michaels and Tony Consiglio announced their resignations at the end of Tuesday's 6 p.m. newscast.

Michaels and Consiglio, who have a combined 12½ years' service at WVII (Channel 7) and sister station WFVX (Channel 22), shocked staff members and viewers with their joint resignations Tuesday evening.

"I just wanted to know that I was doing the best job I could and was being honest and ethical as a journalist, and I thought there were times when I wasn't able to do that," said Consiglio, a northeastern Connecticut native who broke in with WVII as a sports reporter in April 2006.

[...]

"It's a culmination of ongoing occurrences that took place the last several years and basically involved upper management practices that we both strongly disagreed with," she explained. "It's a little complicated, but we were expected to do somewhat unbalanced news, politically, in general."

Neither Michaels nor Consiglio would say what specific political leaning they were expected to adopt.

Consiglio, who also was executive producer, said the balanced journalistic approach they use for all their stories was sometimes frowned upon.

Both reporters said they do not have anything lined up in terms of jobs in the media.

"This is one of the toughest decisions I've ever made. This is my career and I love doing it," Consiglio said. "I'm looking at some options, but whether they're in this industry or not is something I'll find out."

It doesn't matter whether they were being forced to skew the news to the right or left, taking a stand for fairness and putting your job where you mouth is takes some courage.